EcoPeace Middle East is a unique organization that brings together Jordanian, Palestinian, and Israeli environmentalists. Our primary objective is the promotion of cooperative efforts to protect our shared environmental heritage

Dear Friends,

EcoPeace Middle East continues to be alarmed by the deteriorating circumstances in and around Gaza including the humanitarian energy and water crisis. We have conducted countless interviews, led site visits and held meetings with officials from all sides to express our concerns and call to find solutions. Please look out for a new report on the Gaza Crisis to be released next month and share it widely on social media.

Invitation to the Symposium on Regional Cooperation on Reclaimed Water

EcoPeace Middle East cordially invites you to attend a Symposium on Regional Cooperation on Reclaimed Water. The conference will be held on July 18, 2018, at the Handler Auditorium in the Truman Institute, Hebrew University, Mount Scopus Campus from 09:00-13:30. The event will bring together Israeli and Palestinian decision makers, experts and professionals from the private and public sectors from the fields of wastewater treatment and reuse of treated wastewater. The conference will discuss centralized and decentralized wastewater treatment models and reuse opportunities, issues of public health, economy and shared environment. The seminar will be conducted in Hebrew and Arabic with simultaneous translation to English. Space is limited, please register at this link. For more information: nadav@ecopeaceme.org. A light lunch will be served at the end of the event.

This event is organized with the support of the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA).

EcoPeace presents at the First Palestine International Water Forum 2018

EcoPeace Palestinian co-director Nada Majdalani presented at the First Palestine International Water Forum in June. This year’s cross-cutting theme was “Integrated Water Resources and Management: Best Practices and Technology Transfer.” The Water-Energy-Food Nexus was one of the key topics of the event, in which Nada presented “A Prefeasibility Study on Water and Renewable Energy Exchange in the Middle East.” The conference brought together contributors from the Arab Region and the international community to discuss the lessons learnt and explore innovative perspectives beyond current IWRM practices.

EcoPeace presents at CleanTech 2018

On the 26th of June, Gidon Bromberg, EcoPeace Israeli co-director spoke at Israel’s 2018 CleanTech Conference in Tel Aviv. The conference brought together the who’s who of Israel’s water sector under the theme: ‘The Water Crisis: Causes and Responses.’ Gidon presented a regional perspective to the water crisis, highlighting EcoPeace’s Water Energy Exchange program as an opportunity to promote water and energy security and regional stability.

EcoPeace’s work in the the Water Energy Exchange is conducted in partnership with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

Good Water Neighbors End-of-School-Year Tours

Across all of our basins EcoPeace GWN staff led Neighbors Path tours along their basins. Nadav Tal, EcoPeace’s hydrologist, conducted his school year’s final tours with Ramot Yam and Ben Gurion High Schools along the Alexander/Zomer River Basin. Here, at the mouth of the river before it flows in to the Mediterranean Seam the students researched and uncovered shared environmental hazards they face, and through waste found, told the present sad story of the river.

Cross Border Israeli / Jordanian Agriculture Workshop

EcoPeace conducted a very unique workshop last weekend in Jordan on “Bio Dynamics” agriculture for Israeli and Jordanian farmers. Bio Dynamic agriculture is a type of sustainable farming; connecting together water – soil – plant – animals – environment and community, to produce better products for the farmers. This kind of thinking goes hand in hand with EcoPeace’s objectives and values. The workshop focused on the Jordan Valley area and examined ways to think ‘out of the box’ regarding sustainable farming for the benefit of all the people of the area.

Good Water Neighbors in Bosnia: Continuing Successes

June 2018 marked the one year anniversary of a new phase of the GWN project implementation between cross-border communities of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Republika Sprska. The Centar za Ekologiju i Energiju (CEE) partnered with EcoPeace’s Program for Water Security, an initiative to promote the effective combination of grassroots and top-down methodology to foster peace and regional cooperation via shared natural resources. A Coordination Team was created composed of 8 project leaders in schools and 6 representatives of municipalities. The team worked together to identify projects in cooperation with students, teachers and school management. Together, they highlighted components of the shared environmental heritage of the Spreca River, fostering inter-community cooperation and the creation of a common path to improvements. Across all schools in the municipalities, students created photo exhibits of both the natural beauties and environmental problems that face the Spreca River.

The Bosch Foundation supports the work of the Centar za Ekologiju i Energiju (CEE).

EcoPeace at Water Sustainable Development in Dushanbe, Tajikistan

EcoPeace GWN staff Mahmud Driaat from Palestine was invited by the World Bank Office in Tajikistan to attend and speak at the High Level International Conference on the International Decade for Action “Water for Sustainable Development”, 2018-2028, Dushanbe, Tajikistan 19-21 June 2018. Mahmud spoke at the “Young Water Professionals” side event at the conference, where he presented EcoPeace’s work, strategy, vision, and mission to a group of young activists and leaders from countries in Central Asia, Europe, and MENA. Mahmud was widely interviewed about his background and the Good Water Neighbors project and learned about, and networked with, numerous organizations working with youth in Central Asia.

The Good Water Neighbors (GWN) project is supported by the Swedish International Development Agency and USAID CMM West Bank / Gaza. Activities conducted in Hebron/Negev/Basin are additionally supported by the Government of Canada.

EcoPeace Networks at the New Shape Forum in Stockholm

At the end of May, EcoPeace’s Israeli Deputy Director Dalit Wolf-Golan participated in the New Shape Forum in Stockholm hosted by the Global Challenges Foundation. The conference brought practicable, real solutions to reshape global cooperation to better tackle global-catastrophic risks from around the world. This was an opportunity for EcoPeace to network and share our experience on regional cooperation and the type of governance models we have developed. Notable policy-makers in global governance and cooperation and leading academics, among others, came together for two intense days of creative workshops and discussions to examine what the future of global governance could look like.

Tibetan President Signs Jordan River Covenant

The EcoPeace Tel Aviv office had the privilege to host H.E. Lobsang Sangay, Tibetan President-in-Exile, for a visit to the lowest place on earth, at the Jordan River and Dead Sea. EcoPeace and the Tibetan President discussed the challenges faced in advancing regional cooperation in the Middle East and the challenges faced by Third Pole countries, China, Tibet, and India, due to climate change. Not surprisingly, though the circumstances could not be more different between the lowest place on earth and the highest place on earth, the sharing of lessons, methodology, and best practices could be beneficial to all sides. President Lobsang Sangay used the occasion to sign EcoPeace’s covenant for the rehabilitation of the Jordan River as shown in the picture. EcoPeace invites religious institutions and communities of all faiths to learn about the state of the Jordan River and engage in helping towards it rehabilitation by utilizing materials freely available on our website.

In an effort to help tackle environmental and energy challenges facing Jordan and the region, the SHE EcoPark in Jordan has installed a small solar energy park. As an EcoPark that models sustainability, SHE employs solar cooking, grey water reuse, biogas generation, composting and trash recycling. To reduce reliance on energy from fossil fuels, the EcoPark installed a small PV solar energy system (5 kilowatt). As a result of this solar power installation SHE EcoPark will now have coverage of 92% of its current electricity needs satisfied from renewable energy sources, leading to better environmental sustainability and financial sustainability.